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In the Southern states of the U.S., there is a popular (and tasty) dish that makes use of some ingredients that may have fallen out of favor in other parts of the country. Like most recipes from the south, everyone's got a different way to prepare dirty rice, including a few recipes that don't even call for chicken livers and gizzards. Here's a simply, yet full-flavored, version of dirty rice that even those in the South will approve of.

Dirty rice is named "dirty" because of the inclusion of chicken livers which gives the rice a fine-grained brown coating - making it look like it's dirty. In my book, if the dirty rice doesn't have livers and gizzards, then it isn't dirty rice. Be sure to purchase your livers and gizzards the same day you prepare this dish for the best flavor. Livers and gizzards tend to go bad much faster than the rest of the chicken, so it's best to get them as fresh as possible. A quick survey of my local supermarkets revealed that about half of them carried livers fresh in plastic containers in the refrigerated meats section, but none carried fresh gizzards. All the supermarkets sold gizzards and hearts together in a plastic wrapped tray in the frozen meats area. These work just fine for this recipe.

Finely chop of the onion, celery, and bell pepper. Mince the garlic. Chop up the livers and gizzards into small pieces (to about 1/4-in. or 5-mm cubes).[IMG]

Heat a medium saucepan with a tablespoon of vegetable oil, butter, or bacon drippings until the fat just shimmers. Brown the gizzards over medium heat for about 5 minutes, turning occasionally to evenly brown. Add the chopped liver (the ingredient, not your sous chef), to the mixture and cook until the liver is just browned. Some moisture will probably seep out of the livers as they cook, so they won't brown up as nice as the gizzards, but that's okay. As soon as the livers aren't red or pink anymore, move to the next step.[IMG]

Add the onions to the liver and gizzards. Cook, while stirring, for another couple minutes until the onion just starts to turn translucent and tender.[IMG]

Mix in the bell peppers and garlic and cook for another three minutes while stirring occassionally.[IMG]

Once the rice has been completely mixed, pour in the chicken stock and season with the ground black pepper and cayenne pepper. Add salt to your taste. If this is a dish to accompany others, you may want to use only a couple pinches of salt, but if this is your main entree, then go ahead and use a teaspoon of table salt (assuming your stock was unsalted). Bring the stock to a boil. (If your pan doesn't distribute heat effectively, hot spots may cause the rice and food at the bottom to cook onto your pan. If you suspect that may happen, then stir while brining the stock to a boil.)[IMG]

Once the mixture is boiling, cover and reduce the heat to low - just enough to keep the mixture simmering. I check this by listening for the steady sound of small bubbles popping (or use a glass lid). Allow the rice to simmer for twenty minutes, then remove from the heat. Fluff the rice and cover again for ten more minutes. Serve.[IMG]

This is similar to my dirty rice recipe. I don't care for organ meats and find that almost any other meat makes a tasty dish - chopped steak, hamburger, chicken thighs, even vegetarian meat substitutes are good.

This is a great recipe! Just like my mom used to fix for me. I would jazz up the spices a bit, using red, white and black pepper but not too much pepper in total. Also I would add sage. It should be spicey but not hot.

There is a kind of sausage here in Lousiana called boudin which has rice and pork (including the pork liver) in a casing. It is similar to dirty rice.
Also jambalaya is another form of "dirty rice" but with ham and sausage.

Use a fork to pry up the rice and kind of flip the pieces over and around to loosen up the grains of rice after cooking. When coking rice, the rice just sits there and as it expands and takes on moisture, the individual rice grains cram together. By fluffing it, we loosen the grains and introduce some hot air into the rice so it doesn't become one large clump.

Once, in an emergency, I used fried chicken gizzards from a local fried chicken chain. I didn't even scrape off the breading. I cut back on the seasonings in the resulting dish a bit, but the resulting dirty rice was pretty good.

Decided to make this the other day, made a few changes though, instead of the liver I used hot pork sausage, but let the gizzards in and changed out the salt for cajan seasoning and added some ground habanero. Turned out very well, and have lots of left overs.

rice cooker won't work since the rice cooks with everything else. you could try to cook everything but the rice and then add it all with the rice to the rice cooker, but then again it could stain the rice cookers bowl, and the inside cover, and well i'm not daring enough to try it. If you were wanting to try that I would go buy a new cheap rice cooker first.

rice cooker won't work since the rice cooks with everything else. you could try to cook everything but the rice and then add it all with the rice to the rice cooker, but then again it could stain the rice cookers bowl, and the inside cover, and well i'm not daring enough to try it. If you were wanting to try that I would go buy a new cheap rice cooker first.

I cook in my rice cooker with ingredients and broths all the time. Always add raw meet and vegetables. It's my favorite tool in my kitchen.

This recipe sounds great. I'll be trying it out this week to make sure I have the details worked out before our Cajun Thanksgiving.

I haven't used this recipe, but it's close to mine. I'll use ground pork in addition to liver and gizzards. I can't recall if this recipe calls for cumin, but you should try that. Just a teaspoon or it will taste like chili! I puree the liver in a food processor, so there aren't chunks of it in the dish. I also use instant rice. When the vegetables are soft, stir in the liver, as it cooks quickly, and you don't want to overcook. Once liver is cooked, pour in the rice, stir, and cover till rice is done.